Sunday, April 29, 2012

The final entry... Judy and Jack, as a divorced couple, bump into one another with their respective dates at a nightclub and try to outdo one another on the dance floor. Their dueling mambo is both hilarious and sublime.

Friday, April 27, 2012

An eruptive moment from John Landis' best film (hands-down, friends) brought James Brown, the king of soul, together with two game white-boy wannabes and a chorus line that wouldn't sit down, shut up or let up.

"Again! Again! Again!," Paul Wallace shouts to Natalie in this arousing choreographed sex act designed by Jerome Robbins for the legendary Broadway original and, thanks to a very smart Mervyn LeRoy, recreated for the screen by Robbins' stage assistant, Robert Tucker.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

A number that was merely sung in the Broadway original is reconceived and redefined in an outlandishly stylish way for the screen by the ever-inventive Hermès Pan, who came up with a veritable choreographic reverie.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Yes, Astaire and Kelly were brilliant, as they kept reminding us (especially the latter, Hollywood's most endearing egomaniac), but for my money, the athletic, hyper-masculine and criminally overlooked Gene Nelson could keep up with them - and then some. Just take a look and become a believer.The film: "She’s Working Her Way Through College”(1952)

A curiously neglected film musical, Frank's "Li'l Abner" was successfully stylized in ways that Mankiewicz's "Guys and Dolls" wasn't, as personified by the vivid "Sadie Hawkins Day Ballet," wisely lifted directly from Michael Kidd's Broadway original by Dee Dee Wood.

It's way too short, lasting perhaps less than a minute, and for some reason, director Bridges opted to film it in shadows, but is any dance on film more endearing than Debra Winger and John Travolta's wedding waltz to Anne Murray's achingly beautiful rendition of “Could I Have This Dance (for the Rest of My Life)?”? I think not.

Monday, April 23, 2012

For reasons sadly transparent, more than 50 years later, Rita Moreno continues to downgrade Natalie Wood, commenting in an AFI interview that WSS "had no major stars. Natalie Wood was not a major star! The movie was the star!" Sorry, Moreno, you're wrong. Natalie's delicate rooftop dance, created especially for her by Jerome Robbins, is more classic than all your ligament-spraining kicks in the racist "America!" number.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Yes, Fosse again. Working under Abbott and Donen and Adler and Ross for the first time (later joining them all for "Damn Yankees" a year later), with the two very smart directors apparently giving him free reign.

A film that has special meaning - the first one that I saw in Sacramento when I went to work for McClatchy. I saw it at the Capitol Theater (long gone) and I lost myself at Kellerman's Lodge (also long gone), where Jack Weston and Lonny Price kept their employees truly subordinate - except for Johnny Castle. Nobody put him in a corner; ditto for Baby Houseman.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Nearly a decade before "Glee," this was Todd Graff's “Camp,” a disarming 2003 film about a musical-theater camp for kids. The movie includes bits from a couple dozen songs by the likes of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Stephen Sondheim and Winnie Holzman, but the highlight is the full staging of a number from the Hal David-Burt Bacharach musical-comedy, "Promises, Promises," with choreographer Jerry Mitchell recreating Michael Bennett's dance moves from the Broadway original. This is about as close as "Promises, Promises" will ever get to the big screen.

The number: “Turkey Lurkey Time”

The composer: Hal David and Burt Bacharach

The singers: Alana Allen, Dequina Moore, Tracee Beazer and company

The choreographer: Jerry Mitchell, based on Michael Bennett’s original staging

Monday, April 16, 2012

Fosse. Again. Yes. His 1969 film adaptation of "Sweet Charity" was written off in its day. Hastily so. And so was Fosse as a filmmaker. For some bizarre reason, the overrated "Cabaret" changed all that. But "Charity" is the better film. As this sequence demonstrates.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Peter H. Hunt's 1972 film of "1776" becomes more impressive with each viewing - a most accomplished musical film. Sherman Edwards' score is at once literate and catchy, lending itself to two particularly wonderful choreographic triumphs by Onna White.

Friday, April 13, 2012

Few television remakes of musicals already made for the big screen are worthwhile. The rare exception is Gene Saks' 1995 TV version of “Bye Bye Birdie,” which is superior to the dismal '63 film because it goes back to its source - Michael Stewart's libretto for the 1960 stage musical.

In fact, it uses Stewart's script; there was no adaptation.

Best of all, there is no Ann-Margret in it.

Instead, the spotlight is back on the lead female character, Rosie, played tartily by the perfectly cast Vanessa Williams.

Every number in this "Birdie" is memorable - the score is intact! plus a few added numbers! no deleted songs! - but the showstopper remains Williams' "Shriner's Ballet," choreographed by Ann Reinking who makes it fresh and new while occasionally paying tribute to Gower Champion's staging of the number for the Broadway original.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

George Sidney, a hit-or-miss filmmaker, outdid himself with his sterling 1953 adaptation of Cole Porter's "Kiss Me, Kate.” A film of many musical highlights, "Kate" offered up one in particular that deserves to be called classic - the twirling, spinning "From This Moment On" number.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Granted, this is an eclectic pick. I'm talking about the school-dance number in James Foley's 1984 answer to "Rebel with a Cause."

Namely, "Reckless."

Shot in shadows, stars Aidan Quinn and Daryl Hannah move in a blur, but we get the point. These brooding kids are using dance to express the hot, push/pull tensions of their sexual arousal. Like "Pulp Fiction," the film lists no choreographer among its credits and my search for the person responsible came up empty. My hunch is that it was improvised by Quinn and Hannah - or, as Quentin Tarantino did, Foley staged it himself.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

John Huston's 1982 film version of "Annie" is as wildly underrated - by critics - as Rob Marshall's dull 1999 TV version is overrated.

Largely by the same critics.

Huston did some clever maneuvering in bringing "Annie" to the screen, ably abetted by scenarist Carol Sobieski: He brought Punjab (played by Geoffrey Holder) back into the story; he directed star Albert Finney (as Daddy Warbucks) to affect Huston's own vocal intonations (it's a terrific voice impersonation); he famously told Carol Burnett to play Miss Hannigan "soused"; he hired the perfect kid - Aileen Quinn - to play Little Orphan Annie, and he had the composers Charles Strouse and Martin Charnin write a fluid new number for Ann Reinking's Grace Farrell.

Monday, April 09, 2012

Ever creative, Danny Boyle elected to end his 2008 wonder, "Slumdog Millionaire," a raw, unstintinly realistic slice of life, with a rousing and quite unexpected production number danced by what seems like hundreds of performers, led by the film's two attractive young stars.

The result: One exited the theater thoroughly exhilarated. (One negative: Boyle received well-deserved criticism when he omitted the film's choreographer, Longinus Fernandes, from the end credits.)

a fan's notes by joe baltake devoted to movies unknown and mostly misunderstood

total pageviews ~ 1,185,000

about this site, a collection of movie-fed daydreams...

Life is simply one grand excuse to watch movies and then sit around and think about them. While my education was honed by reviewing films for Gannett, Tribune, McClatchy, The News Corporation and Knight-Ridder, my personality - or rather my taste - was shaped largely in my old neighborhood movie theater and on my parents' living room floor. Watching movies. And falling in love with the unacclaimed. Passionately.(the passionate moviegoer ® is a registered trademark)

quote unquote

"There is no better evidence of Joe's passion than his subject matter, defending and remembering the more obscure titles from cinematic history. No matter how much you think you might know about movies, odds are you will learn of new ones if you check out Joe's site."

"Joe ... devotes himself to those myriad neglected figures and movies seemingly left by the roadside in our societal rush toward cultural amnesia. Whether he is trying to find the source of Jack Lemmon's quicksilver appeal or understand Vincente Minnelli's valedictory films or express just why we miss Jack Carson, Joe is consistently thoughtful and knowledgeable without being ponderous."